Meat-and-bone meal smuggling scandal greater than suspected

20 March 2007
by eub2 -- last modified 20 March 2007

foodwatch has discovered that the international smuggling of meat-and-bone meal has greater dimensions than assumed beforehand and is indeed an EU-wide problem. According to Eurostat, the EU's office for statistics, more than 242,000 tonnes of animal meal were exported to Non-EU-Countries. This is an increase of 150 percent compared to the previous year (97,000 tonnes).

foodwatch has discovered that the international smuggling of meat-and-bone meal has greater dimensions than assumed beforehand and is indeed an EU-wide problem. According to Eurostat, the EU's office for statistics, more than 242,000 tonnes of animal meal were exported to Non-EU-Countries. This is an increase of 150 percent compared to the previous year (97,000 tonnes).

Meat-and-bone meal was exported to countries that banned imports of such meal after the European BSE ('mad cow' disease) crisis. Some 51,000 tonnes of by-products were exported to Vietnam (2005: 21,000 tonnes), and another 52,000 tonnes to Indonesia (2005: 31,000 tonnes). "The unmonitored trading of animal meal is a problem not only in Germany; illegal exports with the complicity of German authorities have proven to be just the tip of the iceberg," said Matthias Wolfschmidt, foodwatch's veterinarian.

According to foodwatch, even though the EU dictates that bilateral agreements for exporting meat-and-bone meal must be set up first, the Commission does not have an overview of the trade with non-EU countries in animal by-products. There is the real danger that animal meal exported to these countries can be used in human food production and thus returned to the European Union. The Commission will hold a special meeting tomorrow to find out more from Member States on illegal exports of meat-and-bone meal to Non-EU-Countries. The largest exporter, also to Vietnam and Indonesia, is Spain, which exported 140,000 tonnes in 2006, nearly tripling exports from the previous year.

"The meat industry, including Vion, Europe's largest meat group, has no scruples about getting rid of its waste in poor countries, and it even makes a profit," said Wolfschmidt. foodwatch is calling on Horst Seehofer, Germany's minister for food, agriculture and consumer protection, to make use of Germany's current presidency of the EU Council of Ministers to see through applying the same stringent rules to animal by-products that apply to transfer dangerous industrial wastes. Exports should be permitted only to OECD countries.

At a press conference on 21 February 2007, foodwatch first revealed that meat-and-bone meal had been illegally exported with the complicity of German authorities. As a non-governmental organisation that protects consumers' rights, foodwatch initiated criminal proceedings against rural district offices in Lower Saxony, as well as against SNP, a subsidiary of VION, Gepro in the PHW group, and the Beckmann fertiliser dealer. As a consequence, German authorities ended the exports and admitted that animal meal had been illegally exported to 22 countries.

foodwatch provides information to consumers on toxins in food, on deception and fraud, on the dealers behind the trade in spoiled meat, and not least, on whether food with an organic label really is organic. foodwatch fights for consumers' rights through active investigation and campaigning, and by taking offenders to court. It focuses on making the market transparent so that everyone can find out what consumers eat.

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